[VB6] Enhanced Tray Message w/ custom ToolTip icon and feedback, w/o ShellNotifyIcon

IUserNotification2 Interface
Attachment 179580

IUserNotification provided a very simple way to show a notification in the tray area, but it was very limited in terms of interaction. Vista introduced IUserNotification2 with a progress sink that allows feedback when the balloon is clicked, when the icon is clicked, and when it's right clicked so a context menu can be displayed.

(note that this is for a notification only, this is not suitable for a permanent presence in the tray)

Once the support code is there, usage is very simple, with no subclassing required:

Code:

---

Dim lFlags As IUN_Flags

Dim pNotice As UserNotification2
Dim pQC As cQueryContinue
Dim pNoticeCB As cUserNotificationCallback

Set pNotice = New UserNotification2
Set pQC = New cQueryContinue
Set pNoticeCB = New cUserNotificationCallback

'some code omitted here, just setting options, see sample project for full code

With pNotice
    .SetBalloonInfo Text1.Text, Text2.Text, lFlags
    .SetIconInfo hIconS, Text4.Text
    If Text3.Text <> "" Then
        .PlaySound Text3.Text
    End If
    .SetBalloonRetry CLng(Text5.Text), CLng(Text6.Text), CLng(Text7.Text)
   
    .Show pQC, 500, pNoticeCB
End With

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The sample project also shows how to display a menu when you right click the icon:
http://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2015/05/1.jpg

Code:

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Public Function OnContextMenuVB(ByVal This As IUserNotificationCallback, pt As oleexp.POINT) As Long
Form1.List1.AddItem "Context menu"
Dim hMenu As Long
Dim idCmd As Long
hMenu = CreatePopupMenu()
Call AppendMenu(hMenu, 0, 100, "Hide icon")
Call AppendMenu(hMenu, 0, 101, "Leave icon alone")
idCmd = TrackPopupMenu(hMenu, TPM_LEFTBUTTON Or TPM_RIGHTBUTTON Or TPM_LEFTALIGN Or TPM_TOPALIGN Or TPM_HORIZONTAL Or TPM_RETURNCMD, pt.X, pt.Y, 0, Form1.hWnd, 0)

If idCmd = 100 Then OnContextMenuVB = 1

End Function

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The only bit of complexity is that if you want to make use of the callback events, in order to set whether the icon stays or not requires swapping v-table entries. This would also be required to use IQueryContinue, but that's not shown since it's redundant.
Theoretically, you could choose to not use either of these options by modifying the typelib to expect a pointer and passing 0, if you want a custom version of oleexp that does that let me know.

IUserNotification2 does NOT inherit from IUserNotification, therefore both can be used simultaneously.

Known Issues
-Sound doesn't seem to work. MSDN says those aliases should be in win.ini and they're not in mine, but I didn't think a Vista+ interface would require something like that to be added.
-You'll need an error handler... if you let it run through all retries, when it times out it throws a 'cancelled by user' automation error that will show unless you don't break on handled errors (and add the handler). This is not due to any code on this end, it's the system implementation that throws the error.

Requirements:
Vista or higher.
oleexp 4.0 or higher (my Modern Interfaces Library expansion of olelib)

Nice Work ..

Hi, when I try to run the attached project it complains about ""Missing reference: Fafalone's olelib Expantion v1.7". I downloaded your latest oleexp.tlb but apparently VB6 didn't like that one, maybe because it's v4.62? Indeed, VB doesn't want to load the reference from that folder anyhow. Only when I copy oleexp.tlb into SysWow64 I'm able to register the file in the reference dialog. However, when running the project I get an error "Compile error: Ambiguous name detected: NIIF_USER and when I open the object browser I can see the library contains 2 instances of NIIF_USER, and several others. I understand this is an old project while the library have had quite a few updates since the original post, but would appreciate if you had a look at it.

Apparently,

Code:

---

Dim lFlags As IUN_Flags

---

isn't enough, but when I change th eline triggering the error from

Code:

---

lFlags = NIIF_USER

---

to

Code:

---

lFlags = IUN_Flags.NIIF_USER

---

that clears the error, but then comes the next of course, but that shouldn't really be needed. Any ideas?

I went back and changed all the old demos when I changed the identifier on TLB, but I guess this one slipped through the cracks.

At some point it seems an NII_Flags enum got added to the TLB that duplicates the entries of IUN_Flags, and I would have thought that would raise an error compiling the TLB, so hadn't thoroughly checked for such a thing, but apparently not.

I've updated the attached project to reference the newer TLB version, and the code to explicitly state IUN_Flags. on all of them, but I'll need some time to update the TLB to remove the need to explicitly specify (for this instance only, this isn't a common issue with enums). The new download will work now with those changes though.

Thanks for fast reply and handling it, but... it seems like the project download disappeared somehow ;-)

Tried again... have had a few problems with attachments here lately.

If for some reason it's gone again, the duplicate variables are fixed like you already figured out, there's no more outside the NIIF_ ones in that block of code. And the reference, just uncheck the reference to 1.7 and add a new reference to 4.62.

Yes that fixed the errors, however, when running the project and click the show button, nothing seems to happen. I haven't had time yet to investigate closer.

I just checked on both Windows 7 and Windows 10, the demo worked on both for me, so will definitely need to get some more detailed info.

Hi, I'll have to come back to this later as other tasks are calling for priority right now. Thanks for your assistance and for the type library, which I need to set aside time to do a deeper study on, over the holidays maybe. Your contribution is highly appreciated.

@fafalone

Hi, I am trying to get a pointer to the IQueryContinue Interface via CoCreateInstance.

I have searched everywhere but I can't find CQueryContinue CLSID so I can pass it in the first argument of CoCreateInstance.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Not all classes are creatable with "CoCreateInstance", most are derived from others via a call to "QueryInterface".

Update

More recent Windows 10/11 versions don't show the popup and hide the icon in the overflow area. I've posted an updated version of this project that completes the proper registration so it shows (start menu shortcut with *****erModelID, register *****erModelID on load).

Additionally it will no longer leave a ghost process as IQueryContinue is implemented correctly.

It's a twinBASIC project using WinDevLib instead of oleexp and supports x64. You could back-port the changes to VB6 but it will need some work as I removed the vtable swapping.

GitHub - TrayUserNotification

(PS- To use the original VB6 project up top with recent oleexp versions, change IUN_Flags to NII_FLAGS)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fafalone

Update(PS- To use the original VB6 project up top with recent oleexp versions, change IUN_Flags to NII_FLAGS)

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...in VB6
Attachment 195824

... and How change background color and font style/color?

There's a note about that error in the post. Add a handler or resume next.

Reminder the VB6 project won't work right on Windows 10+. And has some issues even on 7. The newer version properly handles that error, fixes issues with closing, and shows properly on 10/11; you could use it in VB6 if you brought back the vtable swaps for the implements methods with Err.ReturnHResult.

You can't change the style/color. This is meant to be a simpler alternative for a full blown tray icon and tooltip implementation. You'd need to do that or use Toasts directly (difficult but not impossible, VanGoghGaming and -Franky- made examples).

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Side note, it's hilarious this forum is still censoring the API name:

Attachment 195825
You can say App. You can say User. DON'T COMBINE THEM! :ehh: